Business management requires human talent. However, to succeed in today's business climate, managers must also take advantage of advanced data processing technologies such as business intelligence, online analytical processing, and global communications.
Even in a modest business enterprise, the amount of business intelligence information that could possibly be presented to managers is beyond overwhelming. As increased responsibility is placed on managers, they are expected to monitor, review, and analyze more and more reports, reminders, information, charts, emails, and raw data. Spending such time immersed in the world of big data leaves little room to take meaningful management actions, leading to paralysis. For large enterprises or higher level managers, the problems are multiplied even further.
A possible solution to the information overload problem is to employ a data analyst to monitor the data and identify the most significant data, which is then provided to the manager for consumption and further analysis. The data analyst can become a specialist who can use the latest business intelligence tools to uncover trends in the data and provide reports to the manager. However, the data analyst is then interposed between the manager and the data. As a result, the manager is disconnected from the data and must rely on the data analyst, who may not be completely familiar with the manager's particular business objectives and goals.
And, even if the data analyst provides sufficient information for the manager to discover a problem, the manager is still left with the challenge of exploring causes of the problem and then applying managerial talent to solve the problem. These further tasks typically require further analysis, communication, and the like. If the manager is dependent on the data analyst, such a process can involve multiple rounds of back-and-forth communication between the manager and the analyst, leading to further delay and disconnect.
Still, the contemporary business environment demands that a manager take on added responsibility and manage a large variety of business factors via advanced technologies. Although current approaches can provide a wide variety of business intelligence functionality, the end result is typically information overload or information disconnect. There is therefore room for improvement.